1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus, a variable speed imaging method, and a recording medium storing a program thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an art for dynamically changing the frame rate when shooting a moving image is known (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) Publication No. 2002-320198). In this conventional art, for example, in a case where the frame rate can be dynamically changed between 30 frames per second (fps) and 300 fps, when frames captured from the image sensor element at 300 fps are shot (recorded) at 30 fps, the number of frames is thinned-out to 1/10th, which are encoded and saved as a file. When the frame rate is changed by user operation to shoot at 300 fps, all frames captured from the image sensor element at 300 fps are encoded and saved as a file. On the other hand, because the frame rate for reproducing a moving image is fixed at 30 fps, portions of the moving image shot at 300 fps are played back in slow motion. High-speed shooting such as this achieves noteworthy effects in the shooting of a decisive moment that is, for example, when a subject such as an athlete or a wild animal moves suddenly.
However, in the shooting of a moving image using the conventional art, when the user changes the frame rate from 30 fps to 300 fps to shoot a decisive moment, the frame rate for the actual recording of the frames is changed from 30 fps to 300 fps at the point in time where the operation instructing the change is performed by the user. In such a technique where the frame rate is changed from 30 fps to 300 fps at a point in time where an operation to shoot a decisive moment is performed by the user, there is a problem that, in a case where the subject moves suddenly and a decisive moment occurs immediately before the user's operation or a case where the reaction of the user's operation is delayed, the decisive moment is filmed at 30 fps and the effects of high-speed shooting is not obtained.